Propaganda and censorship
Zheng, Yongnian (2009) 'The
political cost of information control in China' in Zhang and Zheng (eds.) China's Information and Communication
Technology Revolution. Abingdon: Routledge
This week we will talk about central
control of information in authoritarian countries, and the problems it presents
for the effective governance of the country in the interests of the
people. We will start by looking at
distortions through nationalistic propaganda, and then turn to the problems
with censorship in the service of different interests within state power. Finally, we will discuss the ways in which people can use the internet to try to circumvent censorship.
Propaganda
An example of nationalistic
propaganda can be seen in the passionate fervour of North Korean TV news
anchor, Ri Chun Hui
CCTV item: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGIrtvjrlj0
“Nationalism is not only about
national identity and emotion, but also about different interests. With the presence of pluralistic interests,
nationalistic voices present themselves in favour of the different interests
that lay behind them. However, state
intervention in the development of nationalistic voices has led to the
distortion of nationalism. As a
self-interested actor, the state understandably encourages nationalistic voices
which are in favour of state power and discourages and even prohibits those
which are against state power […] While nationalism is distorted, it cannot be
rational when dealing with other actors, be they internal social forces or
foreign states.” (Zheng 2009: 144)
What are the risks of this
strategy of encouraging strong-state nationalism?
Censorship
“Apparently, to achieve good
governance, information must be freely available and directly accessible to
decision-makers and those who will be affected by decisions and their
enforcement” (Zheng 2009: 145)
In what ways do the local
and national government control information that makes it difficult for them to
deal with public health crises such as SARS?
Here are some Western media
reports of the Chinese government’s response to the SARS outbreak in the
Guardian,
the BBC, and CBS News to help, along with the account in Zheng's analysis.
Avoiding censorship online
Finally, looking at the ways in which people can circumvent censorship to discuss social issues in China, here is a very interesting article on the #ricebunny (mi tu) hashtag that allowed Chinese netizens to get involved with the #metoo debate about sexual harassment of women.
What are the advantages and limitations of these tactics?
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